Grain-cleaning machine



HY. MORTON. GRAIN CLEANING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 6. 1920.

1,398,154. Patented 001. 11, 1921.

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H. MORTON. GRAIN CLEANING MACHINE. APPLiCATION FILED JULY 6, 1920.

Patented Oct. 11, 1921.

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H. MORTON.

GRAIN CLEANING MACHINE.

I APPLICATION FILED JULY 6,1920. 1,393,154, Patented Oct. 11, 1921.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY MORTON, OF WOOD BAY, MANITOBA, CA NADA.

GRAIN-CLEANING MACHINE.

Application filed July 6, 1920. Serial No. 394,388.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY MORTON, of the village of Wood Bay, in the Province of Manitoba, Canada, have invented i certain new and useful Improvements in Grain- Cleaning Machines, of which the following is the specification.

The invention relates to improvements in grain cleaning machines and the general object of the invention is to provide a machine which will effectively clean grain, separating the foreign material such as chaff, twigs, the undesirable weed seeds and wild oats from the wheat andwhich is arranged such. that the wheat is collected on a conveyer at the back of the machine from which it can'be readily elevated or bagged.

A further objectof the invention is to arrange the screens so that they can be readily changed or substituted to accommodate the machine to the work in hand and also to construct a. comparatively large capacity machine which can be readily driven either by hand or motor power.

A still further object of the invention is to arrange themachine so that it is of a.

comparatively narrow width, thereby allowing it to-pass through the usual barn doors met with and also to arrange the drive in a convenient manner.

With the above more importantand other minor objects in view, which will become more apparent as the description proceeds,

the invention consists essentially in the arrangement and construction of parts hereinafter more particularly; described and later pointedout in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a front view of the machine.

Fig. 2 is an end view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a rear View.

Fig. 4 is a-vertical sectional view transversely through the machine. I

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view longitudinally through the machine.

I Fig. (Sis an enlarged detailed side view of one of thescreen fastening hooks and other associated parts.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

1, 2, 3 and 4 represent upright equal length corner posts which are'suitably connected by bottomsills 5 and 6 and suitably shoe later described.

At the top of the mainframe I locate a "shaft.

disposed front, rear and end brace beams 7 and 8, 9 and 10, 11, 12and 13, and 14.

The above parts constitute a substantially rectangular rigid frame which carries the driving parts and within which I locate a hopper 15 which is adapted to feed'for- "wardly to an outlet opening 16, the feed through the outlet opening being controlled by a sllding gate 17 which is adjusted by 'manipulating a pair of oranks 18 and19 located at the back of the machines and'ex- 'tending from nuts 20 and 21 screw threaded on the outer ends of adjusting rods 22 and 23, the said rods having their inner ends at tached to the gate and their outer ends passing slidably through bearings 24 and 25 attached to the cross brace 10.

which is being operated upon by'the upper part of the shoe. The fan shaft is provided at one end with a pinion 31 adapted to mesh with the driving gear wheel32 rotatably mounted on one end of the machine and provided with a hand grip 33. The opposite end of the fan shaft is supplied with abevel pinion 34 which is meshed with a bevel pinion 35 located on the end of a countershaft 36 carried by suitable bearings 37 and 38 located at one end of the machine.

The latter shaft is fitted withtwo pulleys 39 and 40 and the pulley 39 is connected by a belt or such like 41 to apulley 42 secured to a crank shaft 43 provided with a pair of cranks 44 and 45 and having the ends suitably mounted in bearings 46 and 47 carried by the end of the machine. The cranks both extend inthe same'dir'ection fronnf the Toward the bottom of the frame and at the ends I locate two conveyer shafts 48 and 49 which are carried by bearings 50 and 51 secured to the corner legs. The conveyor shafts are provided with pulleys 52 and 53 and the pulley 52 is connected with a belt or such like 54to a pulley 55 secured to the adjoining endof the crank shaft.

At the front of the machine the shafts and 9 of the frame."

To one end of the shoe I attach bearingsare fitted with rollers 56 and 57 which carry a horizontally disposed endless belt 58 supplied with cross flats 59. The upper side of the belt operates-over the bottom60 of a trough 61 passing from end to end of the machine.

According to the driving arrangement shown the belt 54 will effect the driving of from chaif, twigs, wild oats and weed seeds the conveyer in the driction indicated by the applied arrow Fig. 1 assuming the gear wheel 32. is rotated in the direction indicated by the applied arrowin Fig. 2.

However if it should be more convenient for bagging or loading purposes one can reverse the direction of travel of the conveyer by removing the belt 54 and utilizing a cross belt between the pulley 55 and the pulley '53. IIere I might mention that there is hardly room for a cross belt between the pul leys 52 and 55 and for this reason '58 is provided.

the pulley While I" haveenteredjinto adetailed description of the driving arrangement it will be apparent that this could be readily modified without departing from the spirit of the invention. It will be observed that all the parts herein before disclosed are carried by the frame structure.

Within the frame I locatea substantially rectangular box like shoe 62'which has closed ends 63 and 6t'connected by front guide beams 65 and 66 and rear guide beams 67 and 68 and is fitted on the underside with supporting guide beams 69and 70. The bottom guide beams 69 and 70' ride continuously on rollers 71 suitably carriedby the sills 5 and6, there being three rollers shown for the purpose-in thejdrawings. The guide beams 65 and 66, 67 and 68 operate against front and rear sets of vertically disposed rollers 72' and 73 which have their ends suitably mounted in bearings prothe'beams 7 vided in the sills 5 and 6 and 74 and 75 which carry a cross shaft 76 and the said cross shaft is connected to the cranks of thecrank shaft by crank rods 77 and 78. Obviously from this arrangement the shoe will be givena forward and-back endwise shifting movement in the turning of the :cranks and in this movement is entirely guided by the rollers.

Setsof cushioning springs 79 and 80 are located between the ends of the shoe-and the main frame. The shoe structure is strengthened also by front and rear sets of tie rods 811and 82 passing between the ends ofthe shoe and provided with adjusting nuts for tightening purposes.

. Within the shoe and carried thereby I locate a plurality of screens 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 88, the screens 83, 85 and=87 being .parallel and inclining downwardly in passing 'fromthe front to the" rear of the machine,

the back of the machine.

' and 93"which incline downwardly toward the back. The selection of these screens is such that when say wheat is being cleaned the action will be as follows The mixed grains fall from the hopper on to the top screen 83 which is of a mesh such screen. At the'screen 84; theseeds and other small material go through and are caught by the pan 89 which passes them oil through The grain caught on V the screen 84 is passed forwardly over on to the screen 85 where the good grain and small seeds go through on to thepan 90 and the other larger material. is thrown over at the back. The material sliding off the rear end of the pan 89 is then caught by the screen 86, the small seeds going through and being thrown out by the pan 91, while the grain is passed over the end of the said screenon to the screen 87 where the grain goes through and the larger material likeoats are thrown over.

The grain passing through the screen 87 is caught bythe'pan 92 and passed back by it to the back end of the screen 88 where a final separation is made, thecleaned wheat being delivered by this screen to the conveyer at the front of; the machine, while theremaining small seeds and other foreign material is caughtunderneath by the pan 93 and thrown out the back of the machine.

As the shoe is reciprocated. backwardly and forwardly in the frame by the action of the cranks and, the screens and pans are all inclinedthe grain is actually gradually fed from the top; of the shoe to the bottom, the separation taking place as it goes down until finally a particularly eflicient cleaning is effected and the cleaned wheatis delivered on to the conveyer.

Here I may state that I propose utilizing this machinewith anyof the well known forms of baggers'or elevators which can be positioned at either end of the conveyer according to the conditions'met with and can "be driven if desired from a pulley (not shown) secured to-one or other. ofthe conveyer shafts which are extended as best shown in Figs. 2 and4, for thispnrpose.

Further, the screens are of theordinary form and are fitted within the shoes so that "they can be, readily withdrawn and interchanged or others substituted.

the present instance the ends of the screens are received between spaced cleats 94 and 95 secured to the ends of the shoe and are held in place by'pivoted hooks 96 attached to the ends of the shoe and adapted to pass into suitable registering openings supplied in the cleats and screen ends.

In connection with the removal of the screens which are taken out of the back of the machine, I may say that it is necessary to have the bearings for the back rollers arranged so that they can be quickly undone to permit of the dismounting of the rollers and the subsequent withdrawing of the screens.

I wish also to point out that when the machine is in action the blast of air from the fan is operating on the screens in the upper part of the shoe and is acting to blow, by an air blast, all the light material backwardly and out the front of the machine, thereby effecting a considerable initial separation.

I wish to point out also that the arrangement of the machine is such that it readily lends itself for machines in various sizes and in this connection I may state that the machine is increased in length rather than width as I desire particularly that the width of the machine be maintained such that it can be at all times passed through the existing doors which one finds in a barn.

Obviously the machine can be power driven by connecting a pulley to the gear wheel 32.

In order to allow the screen 88 to move with the shoe I have out parts of it away tically disposed guide rollers engageable with opposite sides of a shoe and horizontally disposed supporting rollers extending entirely across the space between the two sets of vertical rollers and at the lower ends of the latter. Y

mg and guiding structure for the shoe comprising a frame, opposing sets of vertically disposed rollers j ournaled in said frame and engageable with the guide bars connecting the side edges of the shoe plates, and a horizontally disposed set of rollers extending entirely across the bottom of the frame and providing a support for the guide bars connecting the lower edges of the shoe plates.

3. A grain cleaning machine including a frame comprising opposing sets of vertically disposed rollers forming opposite sides of 1 the frame and horizontally disposed rollers extending between the vertical rollers and forming the bottom of the frame, a screen.

shoe reciprocable in said frame arranged to be guided and supported by said rollers, said shoe comprising a plurality of superimposed screening plates and collecting pans arranged one beneath each screening plate, one of said screening plates having its discharge end projecting beyond one side of the frame and notched to accommodate the vertical rollers located at that side of the frame. 4. The combination with the structure recited in claim 3, of a trough carried by the frame beneath the projecting endof the notched plate, and a conveyer operating in said trough.

5. The combination with the structure recited in claim 3, of deflecting means carried by the notched plate for deflecting the material passing toward the discharge end of the plate away from the notches.

6. An arrangement according to claim 3, in which the screens of the shoe are removable. and in which certain rollers of the frame may be dismounted to permit such removal of the screens.

Signed at Wood Bay, this 15th day of May, 1920.

HENRY MORTON.

In the presence of JOHN PONGH, Jon C. WATSON. 

